The 18 years old Macallan vintages are highly regarded. They are fully matured in sherry oak casks from Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), which is getting uncommon these days (too expensive). They have been around since the 1980’s (distilled late 1960’s).

Macallan 18y 1983 (43%, OB 2001)

Nose: classic sherry maturation. Chocolate, lots of raisins, dry fruit, prunes. Still, the fruitiness and freshness of this Macallan is exceptional. A bit of vanilla and smoked bacon. Some notes of an old cognac. Mouth: as expected, really rich again. Prunes, raisins, oranges, chocolate… Rather sweet and very smooth. A bit of oak. Finish: long aftertaste on chocolate and soft spices (cloves). Getting drier in the end, with more wood influence.

The Macallan 18yo is a must-try for sherry lovers and a benchmark for other sherry bottlings. It may be blasé to say, but it’s also a bit predictive (the huge over-influence of sherry means this is quite close to other sherry bombs such as the much cheaper Aberlour A’Bunadh). Anyway, it surely is a great whisky.

Price: around € 250 for such an old version. Around
€ 100 if you take the recent Macallan 1990/2008.

Score: 89/100